China Pledged to ‘Strictly Control’ Coal. The Opposite Happened.
By Paul Homewood
In April 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to “strictly control coal-fired power generation projects” in China. Since then, government permits for new coal power plants have soared. According to analysis of Global Energy Monitor data, in the two years before Xi’s pledge, the government approved 127 plants, collectively capable of producing 54 gigawatts of coal power. In the two years after, that number rose to 182 plants, with 131 gigawatts of coal power. In short, China’s new coal power capacity has more than doubled.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/12/china-coal-climate-change-carbon-emissions-pledge-plants-apec/
FP seem genuinely surprised that Xi has “broken” his promises!
For a publication specialising in Foreign Policy, this shows remarkable naivety.
Did they really expect China to meet this or any other promise? Do they really trust either Xi or the CCP?
Most of all, did they really think that China would ever slam the brakes on economic growth, condemn its people to a future of grinding poverty, and trash its economy by relying on intermittent renewables?
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
China will not weaken itself by adopting nut zero or turning its back on fossil fuels – they are to be applauded for doing their best to keep atmospheric CO2 levels increasing, optimal plant growth requires 800-1300ppm, at our current 418ppm, we are in significant deficit
Energywise, fully agree. If only Brandon and Rishi would simply copy China’s energy policy, we would all be the better.
I am pretty sure that any large scale project in China is “strictly controlled” whether that control is what you wish it to be, is your problem. I don’t consider that broken any imagined “promise”
Correct. Western idiots hear what they want to hear, not what is spoken. Xi has kept his promise to ‘strictly control’ coal-fired power generation. No power stations have been built without permits – a permit system is strict control.
Got to laugh at the stupidity of western observers and their failure of comprehension.
Excuse my later post LVjohn. It merely duplicates your observations.
We are told that China is building more renewable capacity than the rest of the world put together.
I have a question on this.
How do we know that the wind and solar farms (which presumably can be seen from space, so we know they are there) are actually connected to the grid ?
We do know that China builds whole cities and they are not yet occupied.
Is there any independent checking of China’s claims on renewable energy ?
Yes China’s building lots of renewables, but also nuclear, coal, gas etc.
The chinese are building every and all forms of electricity generation as fast as they can. They have no intent to use ‘renewables’ as a substitute for fossil fuels. Renewables are just another add-on to the power grid. They want everything – fossil, renewable, nuclear. They are smart and dont care what the source is just as long as they get the power. Its the attitude of the Victorians that built the long decayed and demolished British Economy.
China is smart; the West is decadent and sick.
China consumes a quarter of the world’s energy, more then the US and EU added together.
Whatever they do with renewables is bound to look big in comparative terms.
But put into perspective, renewables in China still only supply 8% of total energy.
Here it is 19%
I didn’t know the UK percentage was as high as 19% to be honest. Is that including nuclear and burning woodchips as “renewable” ?
Includes woodchips but not nuclear
Electricity, not total energy use.
No, these figures are based on total primary energy consumption, per BP Energy Review
Thanks for the reference Paul. That number surprises me, I must say, but you are on top of this stuff much more than I!
Interestingly Paul, the BBC quote different ( slightly lower) figures from Department of Energy and Net Zero as per the BBC News web page graphic.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63976805
Maybe there was a problem in translation. ‘Pledge’ is not a Chinese word.
The authors seem to be contractors to FP given their profiles say they work at some no doubt dubious ecofascist mobs.
May I stick this in here: Decarbonisation efforts stalling in Europe and US, new study finds, ….
more at https://www.construction-europe.com/news/decarbonisation-efforts-stalling-in-europe-and-us-new-study-finds/8032975.article
Obviously Xi decided that strict control meant ensuring they were built on budget and on time.
Excuse me but Xi has lived up to his promise.
He promised to “strictly control coal-fired power generation projects” . Everything that happens in China is strictly controlled. If Western fools chose to put a different interpretation on his words, then that’s up to them.
A thing can be controlled so it goes up as well as down.
China is controlling coal production up.
Paul – did you hear on BBC World Service this morning at 9.30am called the Climate Question. One of the speakers introduced herself as a ‘Climate change disinformation journalist’. They only talked about those stupid climate deniers – quite a tirade.
The ” Climate change disinformation journalist” was Merlyn Thomas. She graduated just 4 years ago with a BA in French and Arabic. Can’t quite see how she thinks she is qualified. I tried to listen to the broadcast but full on arrogant propaganda overwhelms me.
She speaks like a Hitler Youth fanatic who is convinced she is right and everyone else is an enemy if they don’t conform to her diktat. The only thing missing was a rousing chorus of “Tomorrow belongs to me” followed by Sieg Heil.
A month or two ago Willis Eschenbach drew attention country by country to their energy sources on WUWT. China’s renewables trivial and increasingly so